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LORD MOWBRAY and Stourton did no reveal whether he had
Page 7
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read the fou lengthy columns of The Times Law Re port, if he had been given a resum pre pared by a minion, or indeed if he hat been around himself to hear the Lay Lords deliver their verdict.
However he got his knowledge he wa: all confidence when he rose in the Uppel House to answer a question based on tht case of Bushell and Another v The Secre tary of State for the Environment. As is only to be expected from t competent Minister, this Governmen. Whip knew just what that persisten, questioner Lord Avebury was talkinf about when he suggested that the law should be altered, following the case, tc allow objectors at inquiries into trunl, roads and motorways to • challengt Whitehall forecasting to show that tilt road was not needed.
His substantive answer was short anc sweet — "No, my Lords" — and ther Lord Mowbray ventured to comment the Law Lords for restating, with admi. rable clarity, what the Government hat believed to be the position as far as loca road inquiries were concerned.
Whether he was tempted to add thai their Lordships had, once again, reversec a finding by Lord Denning, the Master o1 the Rolls, we shall never know.
That information might well have si. lenced all critics to the left of centre, but instead Lord Mowbray set about achieving this objective by pointing out that the finding was consonant with the policies set out in the Report of the Review of Highway Inquiry Procedures.
But, despite the flirting of fellow Liberals with the last administration, Lord Avebury was not a member of that Government, and he was not going to be deterred.
Indeed he has not been a member of any administration, so he was able, with no feelings of self-guilt, to claim that forecasts made in 1960, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1972 and 1974 had all turned out to be wildly overstated.
If they had been relied on entirely, charged Lord Avebury, we should have built thousands of miles of unnecessary trunk roads.
Lord Mowbray mildly observed that this need, not always be the case. And then added what could be considered by some to be his only controversial statement "If there are mistakes, then the people who conduct these matters learn by their mistakes."